Simple yet dumb question:

Why are the wheels on the 350z staggered? I am not staggered now & considering going back to 275 & 255 stagger soon. The car runs just fine now and I did not do this to rotate front to rear, the car just looks better on all 275's.


Thougts, comments

 

wat

 

the wheels are not all staggered (depends on the model), but all the tires are

I don't know if that deserves a "WTF" though, unless you discovered something Nissan didn't consider?

looks are subjective, so is "handles better" - some prefer staggered (me included) some don't

 

The tires are staggered to adjust the handling of the car.


There are experiences from people tracking their cars on this matter.

 

having that wide of a tire on the front doesnt mean its best for all weather conditions. You get less lb/sq inch with a wider tire which can hurt rain/snow traction greatly (esp when braking and turning)...

 

IMO car feels sluggish with the same tire all around. I prefer the Stagger. Not just nissan either, it prettys common for sport cars..

 

The steering is a lot heavier with 265 width and up tires up front and 225 (stock front size, at least back in '03) is weaksauce for the rear of this car.

 

I think the main reason it was designed that way was that in most situations, the car would have a tendency to understeer. I would imagine that with a non-staggered setup the handling would be more neutral, with a slight tendency to oversteer (because of the rear wheel drive and the slight front weight bias).

The upside to a little understeer is that it is more predictable, and easier to correct (for novice drivers, which applies to most drivers). Consider it a safety feature.

 

WTF did your parents think by sending you into the world so uneducated

 

Oh please edumacate us lowly folk. Where would I be without someone like you telling people they are uneducated. Thank you for saving me.


I have run a 275 square setup and I did not feel like the steering was heavy. It seemed that with every day driving it was very sensitive to steering input.

As for the super small tires (225F & 245R in 06) I do believe it is all for insurance purposes. If you notice a lot of the "big power" cars have skinny tires out back.

 

Alot of the big power cars runs 305s and stuff...

 

 

Are you ok, hito?

 

for someone who bashes posts a lot, this is a pretty odd post. i would assume that like someone said, its much easier to turn a smaller tire (225 stock fronts) and much easier to hook the tires up and control the car with wider (245) tires in the rear, so thats that. idk though it is a fair question

 

I have 275's all around, I like it.

 

I like a little heavier steering. I feel like I get more feedback.

Another thing to look into is cost. Wider tires are a little more expensive.

 

Same here... i'm running 265/35 up front and 275/40 rear and the steering is nice and heavy, plus a lot more grip into the corners with this heavy *** car.

People seem to forget our Z's have about 3-400 pounds of weight on most sports cars in our price range. Wider tires help keep that weight in check.

 

A. They probably wanted me to use better sentence structure & punctuation than yourself.
B. I really don't believe they did send me out into the world too uneducated.

There is not a large Z community where I live, so I ask questions and listen to feedback before making decisions with regards to my Z car. I have driven my Z car both in the staggered setup & on all 275's, really not much of a difference, & the traction control really wasn't a problem either. As for the car being heavier to steer with largere tires, well DUH.

 

Calin, thanks for caring, really caring!!! Post up some pics of the new shoes HITO.

 

If the answer to your question was so obvious than why did you ask it in the first place?

The majority of drivers on the road are not in favor of heavy steering vehicle so I can assure that is one of many factors that Nissan to into consideration when configuring this vehicles suspension geometry and choose it's tire sizes.